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“A novel must be exceptionally good to live as long as the average cat.” This aphorism is widely attributed to Philip Stanhope, the Fourth Earl of Chesterfield. Lord Chesterfield lived through the period of English literary history when novels were just becoming popular, and there was already a sense that all forms of media were ephemeral. What did Chesterfield have in mind? How long do cats live, on average?

What are the facts on the lifespan of a cat? Here at Catster, we’ve done the research on the average cat lifespan and have all the information you need to answer the question, “How long do cats live?” We’ve crunched the numbers and can tell you that, like novels, the life expectancy of cats depends on a variety of circumstances, including environment, diet and health. We’ll give you information on everything ranging from the general question “How long do cats live?” to the average age of the “current” oldest living cat, the average of the outlying ages, and the averages for indoor and outdoor cat lifespan.

How long do cats live? Environment, maintenance, health, and whether the cat is spayed or neutered — all of these factors matter when thinking about the life expectancy of a cat. Sterilization can be a significant factor. Spaying and neutering removes the risk of developing diseases that can affect a cat’s reproductive system in old age.

It has become a truism on the Internet, that, with access to current medical and dietary advancements, the ideal cat “can” or “may” live to up to 20 cat years and older. Based on a survey of 10 reputable sites that discuss the average domestic cat, the numbers are more inconsistent, ranging from 10 to 20 years. The average domestic cat lifespan comes out to 15.1 years.

Cat breed is certainly a factor when it comes to answering the question, “How long do cats live?” We could list out the lifespan of each cat breed, but then we’d be here forever. Our research suggests that mixed breed cats are, in general, hardier and live longer than purebred cats. Have a question about a specific breed’s longevity? Please consult our list of purebred and hybrid cat breeds.

When answering, “How long do cats live?” we’re concerned, like Lord Chesterfield, with “the average cat.” On average, female cats live one to two years longer than male cats. On average, indoor cats live longer than outdoor cats. On average, wild, homeless and feral cats live dramatically shorter lives than domestic cats.

When it comes to the question “How long do cats live?” all the research we’ve done overwhelmingly suggests that indoor cats live nearly three times as long as outdoor cats. How long do cats live if they’re indoor cats? Indoor cats are typically sterilized, vaccinated and removed from the stresses, risks and dangers of the outside world. They are fed regularly and have easy access to water that is fresh and clean.

They require more attention, more distractions, and must be encouraged to get sufficient exercise to avoid obesity. Fortunately, attentive cat owners provide all of those things. The numbers varied widely among all the sites we visited, ranging from 14 to 20 years. Based on the numbers we chronicled, the average lifespan of an indoor cat is 16.875 years.

A number of challenges tend to limit the average cat lifespan of an outdoor cat. Of course, “outside” means different things depending on where a cat lives and when we’re answering “How long do cats live?”

Do you live in an urban, suburban, rural or remote location? How many neighbors have outdoor cats? Do you live in a place with an abundance of predatory wildlife? Are there feral or stray animals nearby? Is the weather amenable year-round to an outdoor lifestyle? How close do you live to roads and thoroughfares?

These are all limiting factors, as are increased exposure to fleas, ticks, and other parasites and illnesses. Outdoors, cats can also get into cat fights and scrapes with other cats and are at increased risk of accidents.

However, they also have the freedom to explore, mark out favored perches and get natural exercise. Because there are so many more unpredictable variables, the numbers are generally not good, and cat lifespan ranges much more widely, anywhere from three to 10 years. The average cat lifespan outdoors is 5.625 years.

How long can cats live?

How long can cats live? Photography by Ramon Espelt Photography / Shutterstock.

I can hear you saying, “But my cat …” These numbers are all averages. My cat, Klesko, has always been an outdoor cat and she’s 15 years old. There are always outliers that defy averages when it comes to answering “How long do cats live?”

The Guinness Book of World Records lists the oldest recorded cat age was attained by Creme Puff, a cat who passed away in Austin, Texas, at 38 years and three days old, a truly grand, almost incomprehensible age. The age of the “current” oldest living cat is much more variable because that information can go out of date at any given moment.

Reviewing the last several years’ worth of information, I’ve seen the “current” oldest cat have ages ranging from 23 to 36. In the last decade, the average oldest living cat is 29.857 years old. Who is the current record holder? Rather than risk our own obsolescence, we suggest that you check with the Guinness site. Its page on “Oldest Cat Living” wisely and expressly states that the current record holder is a flexible and changeable position.

Tell us: How long have your cats lived? We want to hear how old your cats are! What is the longest-lived cat you’ve ever owned, heard of, or seen? Share your stories and memories in the comments!

Hi
Speedy the Cat 21 Human years and still going strong.
She is spade, in door out door. tabby found a banded under a car hood in the winter by police and then to us she has a broken tail from the car.
she received two snake bites from copper head snakes with some skin damage that healed.

Gray beautiful girl is closing in on 17- indoor only except outside supervision. Mind is sharp, can jump, see and hear still. We probably 1-4 months left due to kidney disease. She was so healthy everywhere else which has kept her going strong since her diagnosis in 2016. Breaks my heart, thought we would easily get to early 20s.

My oldest cat is 19 yrs old. She still seems to have a lot of energy and play. She has become my best friend and I dread the day I will lose her. I have 7 other cats ranging from 2 to 11. Only one is an outside cat but he has fresh food and water every day, as well as a heated cat house. My cats are my life and I love each and every one of them. I just hope they all have long and happy lives.

I have had 2 cats live to ripe old ages. One made it to 21 and another made it to 20. Both could be indoors or outdoors as they pleased. I don’t know if breed makes any difference, but the older one was a Maine Coon and the other was a Calico.

I had a cat that lived until he was twenty years old. He was an outdoor cat, but when he got older I moved into an apartment, he then became an indoor cat. He was the most adorable cat. I loved him dearly. I have two other cats, who are both indoor cats. A male aged 15, 3 years and a female aged about 11 to 12 years.

We just lost the oldest cat we ever had and she, Panzy was 20 years and 8 months old….Prior to that Simba was 19 years 2 months old. We still have a 15 year old Maine coon mix, who’s suffering from a thyroid condition and stomotitis and a 14 year old red tabby that so far is doing great.

We live in London in a quiet cul-de-sac with a big garden. Our beloved blue British Shorthair mix is currently 13 and a half . He has always had access to the outdoors and loves sniffing about, climbing trees and sleeping in the flower beds (!). He has always enjoyed very good health and I can’t imagine how we will all feel when he dies. I actually came across this site while searching ‘What is the average lifespan for a cat’. Meanwhile, Tiger is curled up on my daughter’s pillow where he sleeps every night. They adore each other and she has taught him an amazing array of tricks . Maybe we’ll be lucky and he will prove to be immortal !

My siamese turn 22. i had her at 10 weeks. always been iconditional love
I put his good health on vegetables She eat tomatoes, cucombers and cantaloup weeklyno aparent disease said the vet no catarac, no kidney issues, but she is quite deaf. am terrified to lose her. so we always sleep together. Finger crossed.

Hi Francois I’m glad to hear your Siamese is still thriving at 22 my Lucy (indoor cat only) is a seal point Siamese & will be 20 next month altho she is now blind she manages really well using her whiskers as a guide she eats wet & dry food plus chicken & cheese still pees & poops & can still jump up on her favourite spots. You have given me hope that Lucy will be around for a couple more years. Take care Coreen

We had a black cat who lived in the stable most of his life. He moved into the house with us for the last two years and we had him put down when he had lost both hearing and sight. He was still catching squirrels at 21. We knew his birth date and at the time of his final vet visit, he was 24 years and 3 months old.

My Blue Russian, Joe, is just shy of 18. I have had him since he was 8 weeks. He has always been an indoor/outdoor cat and used to be a voracious hunter. We live in a semi-rural area on acreage and have lost 2 other cats to the outside mysteries in the last two decades. The only vaccinations Joe has had were as a kitten around acquisition/neutering time. 10 years ago, I took him to the local vet after a scrap with another cat left him with an abscessed ear. The vet chastised me for not keeping his vaccinations up to date and said he was a “ticking time-bomb.” I said was grateful for the treatment and antibiotic which cured him, and left. The last two years, he has become an inconsistent puker, and much fussier about his food. Still weighs in just under 13 lbs though, and always hangs around outside when I am doing yard work. The absolute biggest change in his personality as he ages is he is much more lovable. He will sit on my lap and let me pet him for an hour. Never would he do that in his prime. Joey defies all odds …indoor-outdoor, no vaccinations since kittenhood, and has made it to ripe-old-cat-age in primo health. Oh…He doesn’t need a litter box and instead chooses a variety of outdoor spots on the property. Such a good boy!

This is so funny. Sounds exactly like our cat Jo only ours is female. We were told as a kitten she was a he therefore were waiting to have “fixed”, unlike the sister, whom we has spayed right away. Jo proved her femininity by getting pregnant so was spayed after litter was born. And renamed from Joe to JoJo for Josephine. She hasn’t been in a fight, but it did dawn on me of my neglect for remembering shots for many years. She is now 10. She used to be a great mouser, but will no longer kill or even play with one. They can be all about and she ignores them. I’m quite unhappy about it as we have a mouse problem in our house. Not sure I can have ONLY a companion cats, for this reason. We NEED at least one mouser. AND preferably one that will STOP using my potted plants for a litter box.

I keep seeing circular sourcing for the age that cats live. This blog/cat website sources this other blog/cat website, etc. I’m having a hard time finding something that points to any original research on the age? (not an average of what other websites say, but actual research). Does anyone know where to look?

Dude that article literally has no sources. He wants sources. Anyone can post an article that says “12 to 18 years,” where’s the data, the expert’s name and credentials who told you that information, the book you read it in, anything that suggests you didn’t just pull the number out of your butt.

For as long as I remember I’ve had a cat. Now I have 5. Billy and bobby are ginger toms from the same litter. They will be 10 in May. They are out every night and in all day if they choose. They are independent but very loving. I feel very lucky that they choose to keep me ; )

Hi, and thank you for the lovely articles. Ms Crumpet is a rescue domestic short-hair. She will turn 10 years in Jan 2019, She is the love of my life, more than my wife of 20 years. Ms Crumpet rules the house, she owns everything including us. We are her house keepers. She has never been left alone, so we never been on holidays together since she arrived. When she was younger she traveled a lot with us, including, attending weddings and attending my grans funeral. She has her own wicker crib and never sleeps unless she is covered with her kitty fleece blankets. I recently lost my dad of 73 years due to cancer, which I have accepted and come to terms with. However I cannot bear the thought of loosing of Ms Crumpet. Ones sole is not awakened unless it has been loved by an animal.

She was nine. We had had her for eight years and she was the most beautiful kitty in the whole wide world to me. She would do anything to be brushed, it didn’t matter if you had just clipped her nails or even accidentally stepped on her tail, she’d still do anything for that brush. She has very overweight but still so, so lovable, and spoiled rotten. We loved her so much, and it was only a few days before freshman year started for me that we found out that what we thought was a hip dislocation was actually a tumor keeping her leg from bending, and the only way to get rid of it was amputation and it had such a high chance of coming back somewhere worse that we couldn’t put her through that much pain. I was there as the life left her.

Pumpkin, a gray, teeny-tiny tiger tabby, just went down this morning.
She was having a seizure, which she’s had before this year, but this one lasted over two hours, medication wasn’t helping, and it showed no signs of slowing down (except for her body simply exhausting itself).
Even after the vet anesthetized her, she was still wide-eyed and panting, we couldn’t let her suffer any longer.
18 years we think, she was a rescue kitten, we can’t be sure about her exact age, she may have been 19. She was with us for 18 years, though.
She was one of the best friends I’ve ever had, and my family and I will miss her greatly.

I just lost my heart “Stormy Cat” . She was a 23 year old domestic indoor cat. She never went out unless you sat on the porch with her. My heart is still heavy with grief. I had her cremated so she’ll be here with me always.

My siamese turn 22. i had her at 10 weeks. always been iconditional love
I put his good health on vegetables She eat tomatoes, cucombers and cantaloup weeklyno aparent disease said the vet no catarac, no kidney issues, but she is quite deaf. am terrified to lose her. so we always sleep together. Finger crossed.

Our indoor/outdoor cat is currently 14yrs old. My husband found a litter of abandoned kittens under a bush at a job site and took them home. This was the only one to survive. He was infested w fleas and near death. We cleaned him and took him in and brought him to a vet. We gave him a home and got him a companion cat a few months later then 2 dogs and and a few years later 2 kids. He is the best pet ever. Very low maintanence. Comes and goes as he pleases, loves our kids, and is very happy. I say all this because thou he was the first pet we got he has outlived all our others. We lost our 2nd cat a cpl years ago and our 1st dog at age 12. We knew nothing about this cat when we took him in and the vet did not have high hopes for him when we first brought him in as a kitten. Yet despite this he is very healthy and active and it looks like we will have him w us for a while longer.

My ginger boy is 15 he’s had a thyroidectomy which dosent seem to have worked he’s lost weight again so very bony and he has a heart murmur I am now at the stage of do I let him go he has had a good life and 15 is good he is my longest surving cat so far.

I just lost my dear boy. He was 20.5. Indoor cat. He had thyroid disease that had been responding well to meds, and early stage kidney disease. Ultimately it was pneumonia that did him in. He was struggling so hard to breathe I had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him down. It was the right thing to do.

I have a cat whom is at least 1/4 if not 1/2 Maine Coon. He just turned 15. He hates humidity and is becoming pickier with food, but he’s still doing his thing. When he was younger, an open window meant he was gone, so they were never opened. Now, if he does go out, it’s only for a short time, he mainly just looks out of it. He’s slowed down a lot, but he’s ok. He’s like my dad. Slower in every way, but getting by. My father is 72.

My indoor outdoor cat brother and sister mail died at 20 female just died at 23 she was death under my truck and I didn’t look accidentally ran her back legs over had to put her down worst day of my life should’ve kept her inside at later age so keep a lookout on the vehicle vehicles please Best friends ever Ricky and Lucy

I had a cat named Buck and his twin brother they were Aby and tabby mix. Both were un-neutered pharaoh lived to the age of 10yrs and died because of some bad food that blocked his kidneys from working his brother lived to be 25 years old he almost died once but I nursed him back to health he lived for about five more years after that both are dearly missed I have an outside cat named Missy and when I adopted her as a stray she was Already five years old it took me a long time to save up to get hers fixed but I finally did it and she still alive today going on 17

My cat, Sunshine, is now 27 years old. I found her under the Hospice building where I worked, 26 years ago. The vet I took her to said she was under a year old. She was also very pregnant. I took her home and made a nice soft bed for her in our bath tub and made sure she had food and water. At that time, I had 2 other cats, both Maine Coon cats. The next morning I went to check on her and found her in active labor with 2 kittens already delivered. She had 5 kittens by noon. All were adorable! Three weeks later another little kitten was in with the other 5. Sunshine just pulled him into the breakfast bar and treated him just like her own. She has traveled over 10,000 miles all over the western U.S. and has weathered 5 moves all long distance. She has outlived all but 2 of the other cats in our home. The others had long lives, too. 17, 20, & 21. The two other cats were abandoned at our country home. They are siblings both now 16. Sunshine is going strong. She has arthritis which is being treated. Her appetite is good and she should be good for another year or two, at least!

my cat is somewhere between 20 and 21 she is really good.never had any teeth problems and got all her own teeth.I was a bit worried a few months ago that turned out to be thyroid.but now she’s on prescription food she has perked up again.she is an indoor cat and never makes any sound at all.she has us running around after her.just come back from the cattery .the owner said she could go on another 10 years and has the constitution of a horse .likes her grub